Denver SEO Company

Local SEO is a great way to market your business. SEO helps promote your products and services to Denver customers at the exact time they’re looking for them. Millions of people do local search every day trying to find the best local business in their area. By working with a Denver SEO Company, you can help increase your chances of potential customers finding you.

SEO takes resources, expertise and time to achieve results, but its far from rocket science. We work with companies all across the Denver Metro Area to help drastically improve their sales. With a proven process we can help your company grow too.

We offer multiple SEO campaigns to fit most companies’ budgets.

A Guide to SEO

Have you ever wondered why your website doesn’t show up on the first page of Google, but your competitors do? 10 years ago, when I stumbled into the Internet Marketing Industry, I really didn’t fully understand SEO. I’m going to do my best to explain in non-technical terms what SEO is and why your competitors show up on the first page of Google.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. This is the practice of helping search engines, like Google or Bing,understand what your website and/or a single web page is about. The better you can help the search engines understand what your web page is about, the higher it will show up in the search results.

Why should I care about SEO?

Good question. First lets break down the search results and what they are. If you talk to enough SEO people you will hear the term SERPs thrown out. SERPs stands for Search Engine Results Page. Basically the results you get after entering a search term into Google, Yahoo, Bing or any other search engine.

Showing up higher in a search result means its more likely a user (potential customer) will visit your website. Chitika did a study in 2013 which shows the average traffic you can expect for when ranking for a specific search term. The higher your placement in the SERPs the more likely someone will visit your site. Someone visiting your site means there is a good chance they are interested in using your service or buying your product.

For example the average monthly search volume for the term “Denver Plumber” is 200. This means on average 200 people search for the term (keywords) “Denver plumber”

If your website was the first result then you can expect 65 potential customers to visit your site. If your website is the second result you can expect 35 potential customers to visit your site. Spot 10, default number of search results expect only 2.4% or about 5 customers per month.

If your site is listed on page 2 well, you might as well turn off the lights because only 1 person will visit your site.

Date Source Chitika
Example: If the average monthly search volume is 1000 searches per month, you can expect to receive 325 if your website is in position 1 of the first page of Google.

As you can imagine from the chart above the higher your company’s website is on page one the greater your chances at getting new customers from SEO.

Understanding the different kinds of SEO

Like many professions, there are subsets to the profession. If you look at medical doctors there are countless specialists and internet marketing is no different.Basicallythere are3 kinds of SEO and theyare alltargeting different kinds of traffic.

E-Commerce

These type of SEO focused on ranking a product higher than others. A good example is Bestbuy.com or Amazon.com. Both companies pour millions of dollars into SEO so when you search for “XYZ television” their site shows up first.

National SEO

This is where a company is trying to show up on a national level so regardless where someone searches from, their product or service is at the top of page 1. These are typically large companies with deep pockets. Examples of national SEO campaigns are cell phone providers, car manufacturers, consumer products which the manufacturer doesn’t sell directly to the consumer, such as home appliances.

Local SEO

Local SEO is focused on helping companies which sell or service a certain geographic area. Typically, local or regionalcompanies arecompeting in this space. The search engines have done a good job understanding local intent searches. For example, if you search “Denver tax preparation service” you will see multiple Denver tax accountants, as well as, some of the larger companies like Jackson Hewitt and H&R which have offices in Denver.

Millions of people of do local searches every day trying to find the best local business in their area. By working with a Denver SEO Company, you can help increase your chances of getting found by these potential customers.

Denver Local SEO is our specialty

Just incase someone stumbled on this page, I want to be clear that the rest of this article is about local SEO.

Before we get started, here are some of the most frequent questions we hear about SEO?

Is Local SEO a Good Fit for My Company

Only you as the business owner can answer this question. SEO is a long term investment which will take anywhere from 3-12 months to start seeing an ROI. Typically, around the 3-6 month mark is where you can start to see an ROI from an local seo campaign.

SEO is not the silver bullet of marketing, and should not be your only form of advertising. We highly suggest you couple SEO with pay per click, Facebook marketing and offline marketing.

While SEO is not an exact science, our experienced SEO experts can run a cost analysis to see ifu it makes sense for your business. There have been multiple instances where we conducted an analysis and fond that SEO is not a good fit for a company.

How Long Does SEO Take?

Again, this is not a simple question to answer. Speak to multiple Denver SEO specialists and you will receive a variety of answers. For long tail keywords (more on this below), 30-90 days. Your main keyword, 3 months up to a year.

How much does SEO cost?

This is the most commonly asked question. There is no simple answer, but I will try and break it down as sbest as I can.

Denver Metro Area is the 19th largest population in the US. Large population means more competition. The higher competition the higher the costs.

Depending on the service your company offers to the people of Denver, your SEO cost could vary drastically. If you are a personal injury attorney your cost could range from $5,000 -$7,500 per month. If you’re a tuckpointer $750-$1,250 per month.

Before we proceed forward, this section has some technical items, which isn’t meant to be intimidating, but help educate you to have a better understanding of what SEO encompasses.

What does a Denver SEO Expert do to my site to make it show up in Google?

Local SEO can be broken down into 3 sections: keyword research, on-page and off page. Every reputable SEO Firm will follow some sort of process which addresses these 3 aspects of local search.

Keyword Research for Local Search Intent

Keywords are the lifeblood for a local search campaign. A keyword is what someone types into a search engine. Keywords can either be short tail or long tail.
For example if you landed on this page you most likely searched for something like Denver SEO Company or SEO Firm. These 2 terms are keywords we are targeting with this page. The above mentioned keywords are exact match keywords AKA: short tail keywords. These typically have the most monthly searches and are the hardest to rank for.
If you typed in “affordable SEO companies in Denver”, this is a long tail keyword. These keywords are typically easier to show up on page 1 of the SERPs, but they have lower search volume.

On-Page SEO

On page is anything on your website. It is something you can changed by logging into your website. Having a well designed site is just the starting point. There are many technical factors which need to be addressed to help search engines understand what your website is all about. Below are a few of the technical items we address:

Site Speed

A slow loading website is annoying to users and if a site takes more then 3 seconds to load, most users will hit the back button before your site loads. We spend days doing everything we can to make your site as fast as possible. Our target load is less then 1.5 seconds. Images will be optimized, HTML code will be trimmed down, caching and CSS and HTML compression is applied.

Mobile Friendly Page

Over 50% of searches are now conducted on a mobile phone or tablet. Not having a mobile optimized site alienates 50% of your potential customers. To see if your site is mobile friendly you can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool for free.

Title Tags and Heading Tags

A website is very similar to a high school text book but more entertaining, at least we hope. All of your website pages make up the text book. Each webpage is a chapter and each chapter is broken down in to sections.
At the very top of the page is the title. The title is arguably the most essential element on a webpage. This is where your targeted short tail keyword is placed.
You’ll notice this page you’re reading is about SEO in Denver. Our Title tag is “Denver SEO”. We are telling search engines this page is about Denver SEO.
After the title tag is the heading tags. Think of heading tags as the subsection. There are heading tags from 1-7. The smaller the number, the more important the term. Our first heading is “Denver SEO Company” As you can imagine this is a very important search term for us.
Moving down the page you will see subheading, the subheadings are typically a question containing a long tail keyword. This helps the page show up in the search results for long tail keywords and drive more traffic.

Content

While fancy graphics and images look nice, they can not rank a page alone. Search Engines understand the text on your website much better then they do your images. Content is what going to sell your prospective client on why they should choose your company.
Content should always be written for the user, but you may need to make minor tweaks here and there to help hammer home to search engines that your content is for a local business.
General speaking, longer content wins. You want to answer every possible question someone might have about your product or service. Also, longer content lets you include more keywords, both short tail and longtail helping increase the value of each page on your website.

Contact Information

It is silly to have to mention this, but your phone number should be prominently displayed at the top and bottom of every single one of your webpages. Additionally, since it’s a local business, you need to have an address in the footer. You also need a contact us page. This is a great place to embed a Google Map.

Additional Items

While the above is not everything, it’s the major areas of focus. Below are some other important on-page technical SEO items which need to be done.

Implement Schema

Test for 301, 404

Set up HTTPS

Add sitemaps

Add Google Analytics

Add site to Google Web Master Tools

Add Site to Bing Web Master Tools

Add meta descriptions

Check for duplicate Title Tags, Heading 1 tags

Set up Robots.text file

Setup Breadcrumbs

Evaluate Site navigation for user interface

Privacy Policy is linked to on every page

Facebook Open Graph tags work correctly

Twitter Cards are setup and working correctly

Images include relevant Alt attributes

Evaluate current backlink profile

URLs are search engine friendly

Passes McAFee site Alert

And about 72 other things.

As you can see, there is a plethora of work which needs to be done just to make your site friendly to the search engines. Depending on how many pages your site has this can take as little as a day or up to a month.

Off Page SEO

Off Page SEO is broad category of work done, not on your website which helps your business more visible to search engines. Off page SEO items help build trust and relevance about your company’s website. The more trust and relevance signals you throw at a search engine the higher you will rank in SERPs.
When it comes to local SEO and getting your business to show up higher, there are 3 major off page items which will help increase your trust and relevance signals.

Google My Business

Google My Business is a listing service provided by Google. It’s free to use and helps Google understand more about your website and your business. Over the years Google My Business has changed names (Google+) and changed what you can and can’t add.
It is imperative that your company has a Google My Business Account. Without an account, ranking in the 3 Pack (see example) is impossible. Also a Google My Business account develops trust signals because your account has to be either phone verified or verified by a postcard Google mails to you.

Local Citation

A business citation is anywhere your company’s name, address, phone number and sometimes website are listed on a directory site. Example of a directory is yelp.com, YP.com, superpapages.com, manta.com etc. There are about 50 general citations every company should have.
After the general citations have been done, an effort should be made to gain citations from industry specific websites. For example, if you are an attorney, citations from the following sources are ideal to have: findalaw.com, nolo.com, lawyers.com and hg.org etc.
If your company offers home services, such as plumbing, HVAC, carpentery, citations from judysbook.com, angieslist.com, contractors.com etc. are good to build.
Citations are typically free on most major citation sources. Because these websites have some sort of verification process they help build trust with the search engines.

Backlinks

In its simplest form, a backlink is a link from other sites to your website. These links can come from citations, a local newspaper, a blogger, or a local charity you sponsor. This is a backlink to google.com
Lets look at what a backlink is and how it influences SERP results. A backlink is an endorsement from another website or a vote. However, not all endorsements or votes are equal. The more authority an endorser has, the more it’s going to help your site rank.
For example, an endorsement (backlink) from whitehouse.gov is a strong endorsement for your website. Getting a link form your brothers-in-law’s blog about fly fishing which has 10 subscribers is not so much a strong backlink.
Also, the more relevance the source (of the backlink) has, the more it helps. A link from the Denver Post helps build relevance that you are a Denver based business. Likewise, if you run woodworking company and you have a backlink from the magazine Popular Woodworker, this reinforces to the search engines that your company has something to do with woodworking.
Backlinks are one of the top 3 ranking factors in Google’s massive 200+ ranking factors. Bottom line, backlinks will help your site show up higher in the search results.

How to select the right Denver SEO Agency

There are many people in Denver who pitch themselves as SEO experts, and most of them are stretching the truth. The truth of the matter is starting an internet marketing company is very inexpensive and thus there are a lot of under qualified people trying to sell small business SEO services.
Going with a bigger firm might also pose risks. You might lose some of the personal attention that you get from a smaller company or consultant. The really large companies, you are just a customer number and because their client churn is so high they have a huge sales force out selling more deals to back fill the customers leaving.

Tips on Selecting the Right SEO Company for Your Business

Here are a few tips on helping you pick the right Denver internet marketing firm.

Are they Local

While we are not against companies outside of Denver selling in this market space, a local company has a better understanding of the local market. They know the best spots to get backlinks from and the best local directories to build citations at.

SEO to Client Ratio

Personally, working at multiple agencies in the past, the ratio of SEO analyst to clients can make a huge difference in how successful your website is. If the company is running a 30:1 ratio, most likely your site is never going to rank. Look for a ratio between 8:1 to 12:1. A lower ratio means your website is going to get the attention it needs and allows the SEO to have intimate knowledge about your site.

Do they Practice What They Preach?

Can they rank their own website? Is thier website in the top 20 for some sort of Denver SEO term? Yes, ideally they would be on page one, but the competition is fierce and there are only 10 spots on page 1.

Do they Care about your Business?

Before signing a contract, did they take the time to understand your business? Did they ask you about your most profitable services or products? If you are a service based business did they clarify the locations you want to focus on?

Is the only thing they say “rankings” or “page 1 of Google”?

While ranking high in Google is important and it typically correlates with more business, someone who only talks about rankings is going to massage the data to benefit them. Conversations should be all encompassing, covering rankings, traffic increases, tracked calls, new customer acquisition costs, etc.

What kind Reporting Do they Supply

Many people will have you believe that SEO is a lot of smoke and mirrors, the truth is any good company will document changes they make to your site, off page efforts, such as new backlinks built or new citations for your company, etc.
We put together an all encompassing report. Our reports include the following items:

Recap of work done the prior month, including backlinks, content added, citations built

A forward looking statement of what work is going to be completed the coming month

A Google Analytics report showing web traffic

Call tracking report

Pay Per Click report

Facebook Paid marketing Report

Do the make you sign a 12 month contract?

We think contracts stink. If you are not happy, then you should be able to stop working with a company. You are never asked to sign a contract when working with us. SEO does take time to start showing an ROI (typically 3-6 months) but if you are not seeing an upward trajectory in rankings, traffic and calls, then there is no reason to have to pay for inferior services.

Guaranteed Rankings

There are companies which “guarantee” rankings. Most of these guarantees are based around low value keywords. These keywords are very easy to rank for, but do not have any search volume or buyer intent.

Cheap SEO

A company’s pitching low cost SEO, is something you want to stay clear of. Like most companies there are fixed costs to doing business. When the average SEO agency charges between $75-$200 an hour, how much value is a $99 per month company going to provide? Cheap SEO companies have a high customer churn rate and you will never see an ROI for your marketing dollars.
I apologize if the above information pushed your saturation limit, but your website can be your number 1 sales person. Choosing the right Denver SEO Company can really help increase your sales and grow your business. If you have any questions or would like a free consultation feel free to call or contact us here.